The Incident of the Priority Seat

張貼日期：Jan 18, 2017 4:33:29 PM

Doris Wah

I have to take the “red five” bus which CCU students have to wait in long line to get on every day in order to get to school. There are two start lines for us students to queue for the buses. One is for standing tickets, the other for seat tickets.

I remember once I was on my period and feeling uncomfortable. Before I got to the stop, it was already crowded with a bunch of people on the seat tickets line. And after half an hour I finally got on the bus. I sat on a priority seat and soon I felt asleep. A few minutes later, the driver let other students that queued on the standing tickets line get on the bus. An old lady walked close to me, patted on my shoulder, and said she wanted me to yield my seat.

I looked at her. That moment she just stood there waiting for my reaction. I didn’t see any inconvenience of her mobility or disability; actually she looked pretty healthy. It seemed very likely that she was going mountain climbing. I had queued in accordance with the school’s rules, and the reason I had to yield the seat to her was just because she was an elderly person.

Although I was very reluctant to give her the seat I still did it. After all she was an elderly person. I really do not understand the true meaning of priority seats. If she had been a young adult, I felt I could have talked reason with her in a polite way, but she was not. If we had had a quarrel, I didn’t know who would have stood up for me. Actually, some people might think I was the bullying one.

Eventually I gave her the seat; I still consider that the priority seat should be given to a real handicapped person but not others. I believe many people have similar experiences. Perhaps next time something similar happens again, I still have no choice.